This is Seagate's most recent hard drive and their first 4TB consumer offering. With a rotational speed of just 5,900 RPM it's significantly slower than the 7,200 RPM Barracudas that it supersedes. The lower rotational speed results in approximately 10% slower sequential transfer speeds and longer access times which make this drive less suitable for use as a system drive. With peak 4k read/write speeds of 0.76/1.2 MB/s the 4TB HDD.15 lags the group leaders significantly. The HDD.15 is a far better candidate for use in a NAS (Network Attached Storage) where factors such as power consumption and cost per GB are more important than outright speeds. To conclude, the HDD.15 has a relatively disappointing small file 4K performance profile but it does offer a huge amount of storage at a very competitive price which makes it a good candidate for use in a NAS. [Aug '13HDrivePro]
If you are specifically looking for a 2TB Hard Drive, the Barracuda is both a solid performer and offers reasonable value for money. That said, It probably makes more sense to go for the 3TB version which, thanks to economies of scale, represents significantly better value for money. With the 3TB Barracuda you get 50% more storage and approximately the same performance for just 20% more money. [Sep '13HDrivePro]
We calculate effective speed which measures performance for typical consumers. Effective speed is adjusted by current cost per GB to yield value for money. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top HDDs. [HDrivePro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.